Weather and Traffic

2015 was warmest year on record, National Weather Service says

2015 was the warmest ever in West Palm Beach, where records go back to 1888. (Credit: NWS-Miami)

It’s official — 2015 was the hottest year on record at Palm Beach International Airport, and throughout South Florida, the National Weather Service said in a report published today.

In the Palm Beach area, the average temperature of 78 was 2.6 degrees above normal, edging out 2011 at 77.6 degrees. Warmest years were also recorded at Miami (79.2 degrees), Fort Lauderdale (78.8) and Naples (77.7).

The unusual heat was named the top story of the year by the National Weather Service in Miami.

Only one month featured below normal temperatures at PBIA — February, although August came in right at normal. The warmest months of the year, relative to average, were March (plus-5.5 degrees); April (plus-5.4); and November (plus-5.3).

But it’s December that will go into the record books as the month with the most radical temperature departure from normal — a mammoth plus-7.8 degrees through Tuesday.

That makes it a certainty that December 2015 will be the warmest on the record books, beating out 1972, said NWS meteorologist Chuck Caracozza. “We’re not going to be getting any cold weather over the next few days,” he said.

“There’s been a ridge of high pressure parked to the east, and it hasn’t allowed any fronts to come down this far south. That’s what’s been keeping the warm weather in place.”

PBIA had only seven days in which the temperature fell below 50 degrees, compared to an average of 20. And through Tuesday, 273 consecutive days have been at 60 or above, crushing the previous record of 254 days set in 1994. “This is also the latest in the fall/winter season West Palm Beach has gone without recording a temperature below 60 degrees,” the report notes.

The year’s warmest temperature at PBIA was 96 on April 26 and July 14. The coldest was 38 on Feb. 20. Across the South Florida region, the coldest reading was 27 at a site in southern Glades County on Feb. 20, while the warmest temperature was 101 at a ranger station in eastern Collier County on June 20.

Forecasters named early December’s heavy rains and flooding the second-biggest weather story of 2015. The storms of Dec. 5 and 6 “were reminiscent of some of the totals observed with past tropical systems,” forecasters said. More than 10 inches were reported in West Kendall in Miami-Dade County, closing streets and stranding vehicles.

From Dec. 2-7, PBIA picked up 5.03 inches of rain and the monthly total through Tuesday stood at 7.28 inches, making it among the top 10 wettest Decembers on record.

On the flip side, the summer’s drought conditions — which extended into coastal Palm Beach County in July — was the third-biggest story of the year. On July 21, Palm Beach was struggling with Severe Drought, which diminished slowly throughout the fall as a series of stalled cold fronts brought more plentiful rains.

But the PBIA annual rainfall total of 50.56 inches through Tuesday is still 11.77 inches below normal, which will make 2015 the 21st driest on record.

The number four story was the April 26 heat wave, which brought a high of 96 at PBIA and 99 at Boca Raton. “Royal Palm Ranger Station in Everglades National Park in deep south Miami-Dade County reached the 100-degree mark, the first time any south Florida site has reached 100 degrees in the month of April,” analysts said in today’s report.

Palm Beach County tornadoes on Aug. 3 rounded out the top five stories of the year. One occurred near Okeeheelee Park at Forest Hill Boulevard and the Florida Turnpike, while another occurred near the landfill west of Dyer Park.

The National Weather Service also noted that South Florida has now gone 10 years without a direct hurricane impact and three years without a tropical storm impact.